Monday, January 31, 2011

Geez the Koch Brothers sure do have thin skins don't then, a few placards and they call 911 in tears.
Frankly as a democrat who has had to endure all sorts of cringeworthy disruptions to campaign events, committee meetings etc, I'm not impressed.
We never call 911 on anyone's ass, I've seen people ranting and raving at candidates in fully disassociated mode like Jared Loughner and still no gendarmes were summoned, I say the Koch Brothers should man up and grow a pair.
***
These would be the same Koch Brother who used the Citizens United decision to completely corporatize the last election in a fashion not seen since late 19th century, an era of Big Money Politics that gave us such statesmen as William Howard Taft and that Lycurgus of the Potomac, William B. McKinley.
My question is, if corporations are now people in the campaign finance sense, why can't we tax then at 15% of the gross for the purposes of Social Security?
IBM is a person right?
People pay Social Security Taxes...right?
Ergo IBM and Ford and the Koch Brothers' Corporate Entity owe the Social Security Fund 15% vigorish.
Simple sez Humble Elias.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

by the lapping waters of the Nile Eternal...History once again chases it's tail.
***
Egypt is an odd country, it is ruled by generals all of whom earned their battle stars and brass hats by losing four wars in a row.
In any other country, someone would put two and two together as to the efficacy of being ruled by defeated Generals, but the Egyptian character is apparently a contemplative one, it takes time for a particular idea's scope to become apparent.
And so into the streets stream the masses screaming for blood and dynamite, demanding some relief from the twitchy hamfisted rule of beaten men.
If you think about it, virtually the whole region is run by a series of aging military autocrats of such certain ineptitude that a torpid nullity like General Ambrose T. Burnside could whip their asses in his sleep.
Ah but lets not forget all these men came in years ago promising national self determination, modernization and new and better nation.
Military autocrats are like that, up at five AM, a four mile run, a cold water bath, rice gruel for breakfast and then a good fourteen hour workday plotting treachery & bloodshed, the filling up prisons, reviewing vast infantry parades, the whole panoply of military rule.
Frankly if the Egyptians want this rabble off their backs, I say good riddance to the gleaming bemedaled lot.
At this point the Egyptians could do a lot worse than inviting their deposed King Farouk back.
Okay he is dead but his heir Fuad is still breathin' and answering the phone.
Farouk was a phenomenon in his day, morbidly obese, a pious muslim, a prodigious consumer of food and wives, he loved to gamble and pick pockets at diplomatic receptions.
He rarely rose before 10am, breakfasting alone took up another hour with maybe two hours a day given over to actual governance before he'd adjourn to the casino or his mistresses' lavish apartment.
Under his regime the police were a bunch of lazy bribe loving gimps and the army was a haven of last resort for every broken down moocher in the Egypt, no threat to anyone at all.
The Farouks of this world are incapable of totalitarian oppression as we understand it, it's too hard it takes up too much time, it means getting out of bed before dawn and cutting back on the blackjack tables.
"Who needs it?" sighs his Royal Majesty as he palms the Brazilian ambassador's watch.

Honestly if the Egyptians want the iron fist of the government off their backs, bring back the House of Farouk they will hardly govern anyone at all.

Friday, January 28, 2011

"Remembrance Day", in which NASA commemorates the the lives of the seventeen US astronauts who died in the line of duty.

And it is just a coincidence and a sad one as well, that Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin rabid with the desire to get her claws on the collar of the President cannot get straight in her head as who won the cold war or even the race to the moon.

Normally I'd take a lot of easy shots at Palin, she is a big slow moving target prone to hilarious self incrimation, but just once I'd like to note that she gets into these tangles time and time again because of her abysmal ignorance of US history.
Now, a politician can be a successful for a while and flaunt his or her ahistorical bona fides William Jennings Bryan for example. But sooner or later that ignorance comes back to haunt them, Bryan at the end of his life gave cringeworthy testimony in a court of law denying that man was a mammal in any sense of the word...It takes a lifetime of hard slogging thru sheer intellectual wastelands to come to a thought that stupid.
And so it is with Sarah, she profits by this sort of behavior for now, but just remember those who doze thru their history classes, inevitably become history's victim...metaphorically speaking of course.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Tucson Massacre and the State of the Union Speech safely behind him, someone finally found the playback button on Mitt Romney AKA "The Rombot, Mark 2012".
And of course it is pretty much the same "First Not France" rubbish he has been spouting since 2006.
And in response to the President's proposal to invest in high speed rail project, the former Viceroy had this to say:
"You can’t build a high-speed rail system fast enough to outrun the president’s misguided regulations,’’ Terrible the way the looters and the socialists planners in Big Gummint insist that the trains actually stay on the tracks, run on time and not get the passengers killed.
Awful it's like we are living in Ayn Rand's worst nightmare.
***
All snarkage aside, Romney is currently polling quite well in New Hampshire, but then he hasn't done much up there of note for about a year, GOP respondents have probably forgotten however temporarily what a oily condescending bore he is when in full campaign mode.
This is Mitt Romney we are talking about sooner or later he will find a way to bungle the New Hampshire primary.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Is it me, or has the Scot Lehigh started hedging his bets with Willard Mitt Romney?
As always Scot is on the prowl for a Moderate Republican on Horseback to save us all...and as of today he has some interest in Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
Pawlenty is a credible GOP conservative, that is to say he is bully and a coward, he got elected twice in a Blue State and he has made a favorable first impression in New Hampshire...those are his qualifications per Scot.

But then again, at this point in the lead up to the 1984 NH Primary, all the buzz was about democrat Alan Cranston...So don't get sucked into the early hype sez Humble Elias.
Still, Pawlenty's problem is weirdly existential, next to Massachusetts, Minnesota is a veritable Graveyard of Presidential ambitions with ornate tombstones over the dashed hopes of Hubert H. Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy,Walter Fritz Mondale and dear ghod almighty, Harold Stassen.
Only the Commonwealth can beat a record like that while Minnesota needs but send a contemporary Republican to Potomac fever boot hill to start a serious trend.
All kidding aside, can Tim Pawlenty deliver his own state?
Well?
Can he?
Mitt Romney can, assuming that state is Utah, the other three he thrashes around in are not set in stone.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

that the GOP could've staged a coup last November and installed the bones of Bourke B. Hickenlooper as US Dictator for life, and still, Michael Steel would've lost his job as RNC Chair.
If they'd lost their shirts last fall Steele would've been blamed, since they did well enough, the usual suspects figured the coast was clear and they could heave Michael Steele that credulous "useful idiot" over the side.
This is naught but GOP style Leninism at work...and of course the hilarious part is, Steele still doesn't get it, he will go on alibi-ing for small gummint and rugged individual even if he ends up eating soup once at day at the Franciscan Mission.

Monday, January 24, 2011

at the State of the Union speech tomorrow night, the President could just quietly put down an open box of kleenex on the lectern in front of Speaker Boehner.
That is if he doesn't have a schedule conflict, like a cocktail party or a self criticism session before the House Tea Partei Caucus.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

John Boehner cry, (assuming the House Speaker even condescends to show up), then at the State of the Union, POTUS ought to make a short clear ringing declaration that Social Security Cuts are Off Limits in any future negotiations with congress on deficit reduction.
Then immediately segue into a long discussion about job creation proposals.
Likely this will be a huge provocation from the barely sane caucus of the House GOP, for the next ten days they'll be railing about social security=socialism making themselves look like incendiaries and reactionary anarchists.
I can just hear Michele Bachmann screaming into the Fox News microphones like a blood crazed banshee.
It will be a heartening and edifying spectacle...For democrats.
Important constituencies will "come home" to the democratic party, the GOP will look emotionally unstable, Boehner will likely just barely hold onto his gavel and it will compel our opponents to debate on unfavorable terms.
As far as I am concerned the State of the Union is a fine place to draw an ideological line in the sand on behalf of a measure that is overwhelmingly popular with the American People. I wouldn't make said statement a centerpiece of the speech, but a short clear statement of intent would probably enough to cause the House to erupt like Krakatoa and make the President look sane steadfast and resolute.
One little sentence and the town will go "Boom".
Think about it...

Friday, January 21, 2011

Well what can Humble Elias say?
The primary season is a full year away and "Brand Romney" has still plenty of time to change up their plans and start abjectly groveling before the shock troops of Republican Conservatism.
Remember this is the Former Viceroy of Massachusetts we are talking about, even if the Tea Partei and he are estranged that doesn't mean he can stand up to any pressure from the right when push comes to shove.
Look at the hapless and truckling way he tried to straddle and bury the religious issue in campaign 2008 for good instruction as to how Mitt will behave towards the TP going forward.
The Tea Partei may be on the march in NH, but Romney didn't do too well there in 2008, I wonder if this means he has a different primary campaign in mind one that doesn't revolve around prevailing in the Granite State?
Besides, in some ways politically, the year is off to a good start for Romney, Palin has done naught but pour rhetorical kerosene over herself and strike matches, the rest of the potential GOP field are dubious and obscure, saying and doing nothing is yielding results for Brand Romney.
Still the above article does contain this delightful howler which describes Romney as"a one-time moderate from Massachusetts."
Indeed Willard has never been much of a moderate or a conservative for that fact, he is chiefly out on the hustings on behalf of what is good for Romney first last and always. This is why his makes such a poor uptight, overprogrammed and dismal impression on voters he believes in nothing more important than his own ambitions.
Some politicians can make that work, but Mitt's sheer ego and amateurism always make a hash of it in the end...Likely it will be the same next year.
Still would like to know how well his "protege" Scott Brown is polling in New Hampshire?

Thursday, January 20, 2011

but while U.S. Rep Michell Bachmann is voting to repeal Health Care Reform, she is still the recipient of some of the most lavish taxpayer funded health and retirement benefits outside of the Fifth French Republic.
I can't wait for this yap to run for President, she is a welfare queen pure and simple, Bachmann has her health care package, the rest of us can drop dead in the street for all she cares.
And if she wants to run as a Bourbon style royalist in 2012, I wish her the joy of it.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

R. Sargent Shriver might have been a true political rarity, a democratic governor of Illinois and possibly just possibly President of the United States, if he hadn't married into the Kennedy Clan.
He was shrewd, affable, good looking with a reasonable pedigree and a good eye for the main chance and from 1960 on he did naught but labor in the Kennedy Family vineyards.
Still and all that he wracked up an impressive record with the Peace Corps, the Office of Economic Opportunity, the Ambassadorship to France and later on, in private life he helped sire the Special Olympics.
Pretty good resume there...He was in the end, an able man in a dawning era of blustery ineptoids.
he also ran for Vice President and contended briefly for the democratic presidential nomination in 1976 but both cases he struck no sparks and in turn wandered off into a very private private life.
Well, Rest in Peace Sarge, I think you'll "get heaven" (To quote my grey haired old Irish Mother) on the strength that you kept the C.I.A.'s mitts off the Peace Corps.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

that Former State Representative & Middlesex County Register of Deeds, John F. Zamparelli.
He was also the campaign treasurer of preference for Senators Kerry & Kennedy.
I had some dealings with the departed down thru the years being chummy with one of his nephews, the Old Man was trustworthy and upright...I will miss him.
The Old Guard is taking their leave of us, listen for the bugles and drums at twilight, that is another one gone.

Friday, January 14, 2011

the President effectively "won the argument" with those who regard the whole Tucson tragedy as some sort of devious liberal plot to persecute conservatives.
But rhetorically speaking, the debate was with people who literally asserted "There is guilt on both sides, but your side is guilty of everything"...So the outcome was never in doubt.
I have to say, there is something about Harvard Law School and the US Naval Academy, they still turn out Gentlemen, and Gentlewomen for that fact.
And it is a certain refined spirit that is required here.
So in a bid to recover lost ground, the several GOP congressmen are conjuring with a rule that would allow representatives to carry concealed weapons on the Floor of the US House.
So...I'm wondering, will these worthies sit there at the State of the Union Address, lovingly caressing their 9mm automatics and 32 caliber snub nosed revolvers?
Nope no reaction formation there kids, not at all.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Vickie Kennedy stated plainly that she does not want to run for her late husband's seat in the US Senate.

I think, for the sake of dignity and decorum that it may be time for local democrats to take her at her word.
And in truth, a lot of people urging her to get into the race were looking for a chance to party on the banks of the Potomac under a well known banner, they weren't necessarily thinking as to whether the Widow Kennedy was a good fit with the US Senate.
So to me, a nice big well contested democratic senatorial primary is a good thing, at this point hearing what everyone has to say seems to be the best policy. The above article cites Alan Khazei, Mike Capuano, Steve Lynch and someone named Robert Pozen as likely candidates. Sans a woman with statewide reach it looks a lot like the bunch that contested for the democratic nomination in the special election, more people ought to get in and broaden the dee-bate sez Humble Elias.
At this point I'm less interested in WHO and a lot more interested in WHAT they will be saying, we ought to be discussing a platform or an agenda, something sane, broadminded, progressive in scope and focused on the economic concerns of the little guy.
Any takers?

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Faced with a dire shooting rampage down in Arizona that requires nothing more than some niceties and little largeness of spirit, Sarah thrusts out her chin and screams like a stuck publicist that she and hers are all being libeled and persecuted.
Unbelievable, a few softs words and little thoughtfulness would be enough to master the situation and she cannot do it, all the former Governor can do is tastelessly cry poor mouth.
Appalling.
A rank amateur stumblebum like Mitt Romney would know exactly what soothing nothings to say in a situation like this (BTW haven't heard a thing from the former ViceRoy since Loughner opened fire, interesting eh)...but not Sarah it's all ME ME ME, MY SUFFERING MY DRAMA!
Frankly her fans can have her....I wish them the joy of this awful narcissistic politician.

that due to their concealed weapons laws (or lack thereof), NH is the safest state in the Union.
Nonetheless he claims to come in for his share of threats and therefore has hailed the recent decision of the NH State Legislature to allow concealed weapons in the state house.
I don't get it, if New Hampshire is so damn safe why the need for concealed weapons? And just who is threatening this GOP State Rep in the Safest State in the Union?
Doctor Fu Manchu?
T.H.R.U.S.H?
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association?
It can't be the democrats, these GOP types are full of belittling contempt for democrats and progressives, they love to question our hardiness and manhood, they can't be under threat of life and limb from that lot.
I liked the New Hampshire GOP back when it was genially xenophobic and self contained, now they've gotten all Fox News "Yee Haw Lookit US We sooo Tuff!!"

These days people who are sooo open and brazen about their so-called concealed weapons are usually hiding some deep seated fear and anxiety. Trust me, when the shit comes down they'll never have the guts to reach for it.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Amidst the current debate on "our caustic political rhetoric", Fox News Babbler Glenn Beck has gently cautioned Former Alaska Governor Palin to take security precautions Quote:
"But please look into protection for your family. An attempt on you could bring the republic down." Unquote.
I wasn't aware that the survival of my rights and obligations as a citizen of this republic depended on Sarah Palin's very life.
Don't recall any armed revolution breaking out when Bobby Kennedy got measured for his harp, but then I was five years old when it happened and a notoriously unobservant child.
***
Now, the normal liberal response to all this rubbish is the assertion that Glenn Beck is "crazy".
I say he is not, a truly crazy person (a Jared Loughner for example) would be "bad television" in extremis.
But what Glenn Beck is good at, is fanning the fears of his audience until it's a very paranoid conflagration indeed.
After that, and only after that is it relatively easy to maintain the vital artificial sense of persecution that gets people buying books, videos, sandbags and pistols.
Quite literally, Glenn Beck is making his audience crazy.
Why?
Because it is profitable for News Corp.
Which is why a situation like this is money in the bank for Beck and Rupert Murdoch and News Corp's shareholders.
It has all the violent earmarks and dramatic twists that'll make Glenn's viewership hide under the bed, TV tuned to Fox News with the volume up full blast.
How do we address any of this?
Dunno.
How do you intellectually engage with a malign revenue stream?
It's like challenging the oxycontin trade to a debate....

Monday, January 10, 2011

in the post "Tucson Massacre" environment, is a big backlash against bloggers and independent blogging. In the Globe today they had all the usual soul-searching about "the caustic tone of our political rhetoric" with the prime examples thereof being DailyKos.com and something called "Redstate.com".

I couldn't tell you what goes on at either of those sites they could be calling for the forced collectivization of agriculture or outright Falangism...Humble Elias does not cruise either page.
What I do know is, there is a class sort of divide at work here, blogging is much derided for it's anonymous vulgarity, sensationalism and tendency towards crude polemics...In all a sort of working class profile if one wanted to indulge false consciousness.

So of course this makes the bloggers fair game in a situation like this for "mainstream media" with it's own obsession with the journalistic legitimacy as conferred by a big corporate payday.
Remember Janet Jackson's Superbowl "wardrobe malfunction"?
Who did they go after hammer and tongs on behalf of maidenly modesty?
Howard Stern.
Drove his ass off to satellite radio as I recall.
So it isn't too far fetched to see a blogger pogrom on the horizon...
Ah well, let the sonsabitches come I say, if they want a backlash, I'll give them a backlash.

***
Still and all that, I feel like hell about that little kid who got killed, there is nothing quite like screeching dementia to improve one's marksmanship is there?

Friday, January 07, 2011

the comedy potential of John Boehner's House of Representatives. They've not been sworn in 48 hours and already they are breaking a good half a dozen promises to the electorate, they can't even read the US Constitution without occasioning a scuffle oh and they got two pages stuck together when they were doing said reading without anyone noticing.
Well what can you expect when the GOP is just so unfamiliar with the document.
I give Boehner six months and then some scandal will engulf his legionaries, they are already madly dashing up and down K Street offering up themselves and their votes for nickels...Then the fun will begin.

Thursday, January 06, 2011

(Like H.L. Mencken I may need Foxboro Stadium to laugh in if this comes to pass)
If Rep. Michele Bachmann (R. Pellucidar) is serious about running for President, it can but be for one of two reasons:

1.) She has credible intell that the Tea Partei's main political pin up, Former Governor Sarah Palin isn't gonna run in 2012 so there is room for tyrannical A-List Middle School Queen Bee type in the GOP line up.
Or
2.) She is crazy-angry about getting passed over for a leadership post in Boehner's Congress and Running for President is more fun than drudging on the unexciting Intell Committee.

I'm inclined towards #2, although the notion of Palin and Bachmann debating who can be a bigger more irritating insolent wretch has high comic potential.
***
Meanwhile I give Speaker Boehner six months before his shit house goes up in chunks he has too many crazy angry people in his caucus and the Man himself is little more than an enabler...a Bad Mix and one that'll blow up badly over the short term. Boehner's Speakership of the House is worthless unless he can control his back bench and nothing in the record suggests he can.
Which means the whole spectacle will be extremely edifying.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

is what I feel toward's the Reverend Scott Lively, the notoriously homophobic Pastor who has a parsonage out in Springfield Ma.
Conossieurs of passive aggression will recall that the Reverend took time out of his busy saving souls schedule to jet off to Uganda to testify before the legislature that was then considering anti-gay statutes.
Jacked with the Rev's expert testimony, the Ugandan legislature then made certain homosexual acts punishable by death.
And when all this murderous nonsense went on the books Scott had this to say:
"That was really disturbing to me, when the law eventually did come out,
Class all the way Scott, Class all the way.
Meanwhile there is something perfectly cowardly in jacking up the national legislature of Uganda to criminalize homosexuality and then blubber & theatrically wring one hands when said body backs their homophobic statutes with the authority of a hangman.
These days Scott is serving up coffee to the homeless while trying to "re-christian Springfield" all done with a shaking hand if the sumbitch had the slightest conscience.
Well what of it?
The clergy has it's shameless members there is no escaping it.
I do think though, that Howie Carr ought to relocate to Kampala and get a good gig on AM Radio (they still listen to that shit over there), that way his every homophobic slur will have the force of the gallows behind it.
Think about that...

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

The majority of the American People's Elected Representatives in the US House would happily burn down Washington DC with napalm on live television to get the top income rate rate down to 1%. Hell they may well try to bankrupt the republic just to give Barack Obama a hard time this spring.

Monday, January 03, 2011

Steve Stark is back writing for the Boston Phoenix.
I don't understand why, they've got David Bernstein the best shoe leather political reporter in Boston...What need have they of Steve's pompous political fantasies?

Nevertheless the Phoenix craves Steve the most, they gave big play to an article he churned out a couple of week's ago desperately trying to dig up a leftist democratic primary challenger to President Obama in 2012. Sans a single on the record quote all Steve could do was sorta wish that maybe Senator Bernie Sanders might take a flyer in the NH Primary.
Thin stuff mah frenz, and it will get still thinner as the year goes on and we get closer and closer to Decision 2012.
Connoisseurs of Steve Stark's hamfisted writing style will recall with the simplest nostalgia that he did much the same when Bill Clinton in the White House. Stark spent much of Clinton's first term predicting the President's resignation or alternately that some phantom liberal kamikaze would Eugene McCarthy Bill's ass in the NH Primary.
None of it happened, but it filled up a lot of column space in the Boston Globe all the same.
I don't quite get Steve's obsession with insurgent democratic presidential candidacies, but there is an incumbent democrat in the White House, then Stark is almost always on the prowl for some leftwinger to topple the President. It is like he wants to re-live 1968 again and again and again.
But then that is Steve Stark in a nutshell, he likes to Predict the Past and for all that he remains astonishingly inaccurate.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

Don't underestimate Scott Brown or Deval Patrick.
Beyond that I'm proud to say I've learned damn near nothing.
In truth it was a difficult year in politics and in real life, the economic crisis remains acute and the same old jerks with the same sources of money wanna do the same things in the patently insane belief that it all all end differently this time.
Well good luck to them all with that project...May they have in 2011 what I got in 2010
****
Meanwhile...this is just churlish.

Joe DeNucci the state auditor (a man who clouded the air with dire predictions as to the buncombe that was the Big Dig's cost estimates) is stepping down in a few days, so of course, Jeff Jacoby tries to get the boot in on a seventy year old man who is half out the door.
Class all the way Jeff, class all the way.
I dunno, is Jeff really ready for the vacant throne of David Brudnoy? Partisan hatchet jobs like this make me think that Jacoby just doesn't have the innate dignity to be Conservative Public Intellectual. He might wanna take a flyer on AM radio, he can rant and rave about the laziness of toll booth attendants after the farm report.
The standards are lower, the money is better and that whole George Will act is nothing but a lot of rubbish anyway....Drive Time is the way to go Jeff.